minority

plural minorities

1. countableuncountableThe state or condition of being smaller, inferior, or subordinate to something or someone else; lesserness.
2. countableuncountableThe state of being a minor; youth, the period of a person's life prior to reaching adulthood.First known use 15th c.

   She also played a key role as dowager-regent during the minority of her son.

   2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 117

   1 more example

   And lest any man should think her intent was to unnestle ill neighbours, and not to aid good neighbours, or that she was readier to restore what was invaded by others than to render what was in her own hands; see if the time provided not a new occasion afterwards, when through their own division, without the intermise of strangers, her forces were again sought and required; she forsook them not, prevailed so far as to be possessed of the castle of Edinburgh, the principal strength of that kingdom, with peace, incontinently, without cunctations or cavillations, the preambles of a wavering faith, she rendered with all honour and security; and his person to safe and faithful hands; and so ever after during his minority continued his principal guardian and protector.

   a. 1603, Francis Bacon, Discourse in the Praise of Queen Elizabeth

   Synonyms: childhood · Antonyms: adulthood

3. countableuncountableAny subgroup that does not form a numerical majority.First known use 18th c.

   Most people agreed, but a sizable minority were upset by the decision.

   2 more examples

   Chuhsiung was in the heart of Yi country. The Yi made up the largest minority in Yunnan, with over three million members as of 1990. And their biggest concentration was in the mountains around Chuhsiung.

   彝族

   2015, Bill Porter, “The Yi [彝族]”, in South of the Clouds: Travels in Southwest China, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 185

   The case is the latest chapter in a decade-long struggle by the nation's elite minority to crush the powerful political machine founded by Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in another coup in 2006.

   2017 August 25, “Arrest threat as Yingluck Shinawatra misses verdict”, in Al Jazeera

   Antonyms: majority

4. UScountableuncountableA member of an ethnic minority.First known use 20th c.

   The company claims it has hired several minorities since the complaint was lodged.

5. countableuncountablehuman sciencesA group of people seen as distinct who are subordinated and discriminated against in a society.

   But we have seen that one important difference between women and other minorities is that women's attitudes and self-conceptions are conditioned more largely by interaction with both minority and dominant group members

   1951 October, Helen Mayer Hacker, “Women as Minority Group”, in Howard W. Odum, Katherine Jocher, editors, Social Forces, volume 30, number 1, Williams & Wilkins, →DOI, page 63

6. IndiacountableeuphemisticuncountableA Muslim.

comparative more minority · superlative most minority

1. attributiverelationalOf or relating to a minority.

   They hold a minority interest in the company.

2. attributiveusuallygovernmentEmpowered by or representing a minority (usually a plurality) of votes cast, legislative seats, etc., rather than an outright majority thereof.

   minority government